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Richard Dowden
Africa Blog
How Britain makes Tanzania poorer and more corrupt
8 February 2010 So now we know a little more. We always knew that in 2001 Britain’s BAE systems sold Tanzania a £28 million air traffic control system. The World Bank and the International Civil Aviation Organisation said it was unnecessarily sophisticated and overpriced. Some calculated it was four times the cost of what Tanzania actually needed. Tony Blair personally pushed the deal. Clare Short, the Dfid Minister, opposed it. Now we know that BAE paid $11 million to “an agent” to help get the Tanzanian government to buy the more expensive system. BAE has now paid some £288 million to courts in Britain and America to close the investigation and cover up the truth which a court case would have exposed. [read] 6 February 2010 I have never been to a film premiere before so walking up the red carpet to the opening night of Invictus in Leicester Square was a new experience. Journalists are usually kept firmly the other side of the barrier. So I found myself pausing to wait while Matt Damon was photographed with Francois Pienaar, the Springboks Captain who he plays in the film although he barely comes up to his shoulder. I had got an invite because John Carlin, the author of the book Playing the Enemy on which the film is based, is a friend and colleague. He was The Independent’s Correspondent in South Africa in the early 1990s when I was the Africa Editor. The film is great fun though the Rugby has clearly been choreographed by the insurance company and there is no mention of the "poisoning" of the All Blacks the night before the final. Several New Zealanders were suffering food poisoning during the game, some of them vomiting, and there were claims they had been deliberately poisoned. But that said, it’s a heart-warming tale, the story of how Mandela decided to woo the Afrikaners by embracing rugby is brilliantly told. Morgan Freeman is superb as Mandela. [read] |
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